Estudo dos efeitos do carvedilol em um modelo animal de mania em ratos

Abstract

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a psychiatric disorder with multifactorial development and neuroprogressive characterized by oscillation between periods of manic and depressive episodes. It is estimated that the disease affects about 1 - 2% of the worldwide population and it takes about 10 years to a definitive diagnosis and appropriate treatment. BD brings many impairment of quality of life of patients, generating high rates of functional disability, comorbidities such as hypertension during the clinical course of the disease and presenting a high prevalence of suicide. The pathophysiology of the disease remains unclear, but many efforts are employed in research to try to elucidate the possible mechanisms involved in BD. The pathways hypothesized to take part of BD pathophysiology includes: dopamine deregulation, increased oxidative stress, decreased levels of neurotrophins such as BDNF, mitochondrial dysfunction among others. Based on the described above we sought to investigate the effects of carvedilol, (CVD), a nonseletive beta-blocker widely used in the treatment of hypertension with antioxidant properties, in a model of mania induced by dimesilate of lisdexamfetamine (LDX) a prodrug metabolized to D-amphetamine, in rats. The experimental design of the study consisted evaluation of CVD against behavioral changes and oxidative stress alterations in two protocols of treatment, prevention and reversal using valproate (VAL) a humor stabilizer as standard drug to assess the effectiveness of CVD. In the prevention protocol the animals were pre-treated for 7 days with CVD, saline or VAL). In the reversal protocol the animals were pre-treated for 7 days with LDX and for further 7 days received CVD, saline or VAL plus LDX. The behavioral determinations of locomotor activity and social interaction were conducted 2 h after the last administration of LDX. Reduced glutathione (GSH) and lipid peroxidation (TBARS) levels were determined in brain areas of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) and striatum (EC) and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the hippocampus (HC) rats. The results indicated that CVD prevented and reversed the hyperlocomotion and deficit in social contacts induced by LDX. In the neurochemical determinations CVD significantly prevented and reversed the alterations in BDNF, GSH and MDA levels induced by LDX presenting results comparable to those of saline and VAL groups. Therefore, the results of the present study indicates that CVD prevents reverts the behavioral and neurochemical alterations induced by LDX used as an animal model of mania being, thus, a potential drug for the treatment of BD.